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AIBU?

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Original poster

Advent calendars

118 replies

unhingedtoday · 01/12/2017 10:48

How many advent calendars do your children have?
My DS has 3 which is a little excessive but hey ho, it's Christmas.
My husband thinks it's too many and he is spoilt!
AIBU or is he?

OP posts:
reluctantbrit · 01/12/2017 11:27

1 and 1/3. DD has a bracelet one, a charm a day, and we all share a chocolate one (felt with a piece of chocolate in each pocket).

Frazzled2207 · 01/12/2017 11:28

Mine have on to share but it's the lego one so fairly fancy. I shall get them a chocolate one each next year to ease the squabbling. More than one seems a bit ott to me!

PizzaPizzaPizza · 01/12/2017 11:29

Mine have 2, a Kellogg’s cereal one (which is crap) and a chocolate one that a relative bought after I’d bought the other.

GU24Mum · 01/12/2017 11:29

I was about 15 before I realised (a) that some calendars had "things" in them and (b) that no everyone re-used the calendars every year!

I'm fed up of having chocolates then finding out that one of the children has either taken one of someone else's or eaten ahead in their own one. This year, one has a calendar which was a birthday present, one has a calendar where he makes a Christmas scene day by day and the other one has been reminded of "chocolate-gate" last year!!!

lionguard · 01/12/2017 11:31

Two, which is one more than is reasonable

MissClareRemembers · 01/12/2017 11:33

Normally they have a chocolate one each but the also take turns to open a wooden nativity scene one which my IL gave them years ago. Each door contains a figure/item to add to the nativity. This year, however, they have a Lego one to share along with the nativity.

That’s plenty.

HarrietKettleWasHere · 01/12/2017 11:36

Only ever one surely? I thought it was amazing getting one when I was small, though most years my brother and I had to share and take turns at opening and getting the chocolate.

Still bitter about the time Dad made us have a picture one only (a sad flat thing with pictures of Mary looking wan on a donkey then the Christmas Eve picture was the the 'treat' window and we got to see the baby Jesus in the manger) I think it was to make us see the true story of Christmas, lest we forget.

It made us really quite pissed off actually. And it cost exactly the same as a chocolate one

Oblomov17 · 01/12/2017 11:38

Agree with Dh. 3 is excessive. 1 only here.

Strawberryshortcake40 · 01/12/2017 11:41

None :(

We have a lovely one with little drawers that I usually fill with sweets and chocolates and little notes. But youngest DD has been really poorly since Wed and it just hasn't got sorted.

When they were younger they used to have a fabric one with little decorations on between them. Then a chocolate one each. Then MIL would buy them one with with nice pictures and often my mum would get them one too. Those were lovely years! Mil died a few years back and my mum soon tired of being a grandma - must try and get to the shops today and sort them something out!!

saoirse31 · 01/12/2017 11:41

Think one is plenty tbh!

SisterMortificado · 01/12/2017 11:42

All three of us have lego calendars, and DD has a wooden one that I fill with jellybeans.

DP started the lego one the first Christmas he spent with DD and I (appeared, dead chuffed, after work on Dec 1 with the Friends one for DD and the City one for me), and I inherited the wooden one.

MaroonPencil · 01/12/2017 11:45

One that they share. That just has pictures.

Iamagreyhoundhearmeroar · 01/12/2017 11:45

So much excess these days... Christmas Eve boxes, 1st of December boxes (wtf?), and now multiple advent calendars. Why?

PyongyangKipperbang · 01/12/2017 11:50

This is why I said in 1992 that I would buy advent calendars, to avoid a repeat of year where DS (now 26!) ended up with 6!

PyongyangKipperbang · 01/12/2017 11:50

That should be, I said that only I would buy them....

therealposieparker · 01/12/2017 11:50

3? Hmmmm. Perhaps you could have donated two to a local hospital or children's home. To be honest I think 3 is rather grotesque.

insomniac123 · 01/12/2017 11:51

One each and one each for DH and I!

Stiddleficks · 01/12/2017 11:55

My dds have 3 each! We do them a book and toy one and mil sends them a chocolate one. But my dh’s aunt turned up with chocolate ones for them too!
We count our one with their Christmas presents though, so they don’t get loads of little things to unwrap Christmas Day just their main presents.

Thermostatpolice · 01/12/2017 11:57

One. I made cloth bags out of Christmas material years ago and fill them with something small for each day (usually a sweet).

DiegoMadonna · 01/12/2017 11:58

Why would anyone need more than 1??

Uokbing · 01/12/2017 12:00

My kids have one each and they are not chocolate they are just pictures. My DS who is 6 was a bit Hmm when I showed him, but I made a big thing of how exciting it was to open up to see the picture this morning and they really enjoyed it!

Mine are 6 and 3 and already I am getting sick of the commercialism of Xmas. I'm really not a lentil weaver or particularly economic minded or anything, but the thought of them getting more tat that they won't play with and even more chocolate than they were already going to stuff themselves with is just really depressing, so this year I am going to try and lay off the wear-once-and-never-again Christmas jumpers and the like, and concentrate on just making what we have got special. I just think it's all way over the top now and with social media showing everyone's elf on the fucking shelf that you have to remember to do every night for the next 24 days, and 'Christmas eve boxes' with overpriced hot chocolate and a special plate for santa, I think the pressure to have a 'perfect' Christmas just ends up with a load of mindless consumerism.

God I sound like such a sanctimonious old cow, but I feel like this year I am saying no more! There was a great thread on here the other day about Christmases of our childhood and it was really magical and before all this load of bollocks came into play.

And yes, 3 advent calendars for one child is excessive. Are they all chocolate. Give 2 of them to a food bank.

Jedbartletforpresident · 01/12/2017 12:01

Well we have 5 in the house, but 4 DC - they have a chocolate/sweetie one each and then we have a wooden nativity scene one with little doors and a character/animal from the nativity scene to add to the stable each day. They share that one and did the draw this morning to decide who opens on which day. (The only way to make it fair and stop the arguments about who goes first/last!)

daisypond · 01/12/2017 12:02

One between them, though they're teens now. And it's a picture one, not a chocolate one. That's all I had as a child - chocolate ones weren't around then - and I can't get my head around them, never mind ones with "things" in.

Uokbing · 01/12/2017 12:03

A toy advent calendar? Because they are not going to get enough presents on Christmas day, they have to get 24 pieces of tat in the run up?

Last year I got a felt hanging advent calendar and put a chocolate coin in each pocket. It was completely pointless, they took no notice of the numbers or the countdown, they just wanted a coin out of a random pocket!

Uokbing · 01/12/2017 12:05

Sorry stiddle in my rage lol I didn't read your post properly, I see you said their Christmas presents are in the advent calendar?

I still think 3 is to much

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